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December 8, 2011

I’m a big fan of Rob Conery. I like his honesty. I like that he’s a “rabble rouser” (I was going to link to a controversial post but there are so many!). And since Scott Hansleman considers him a friend I know he’s a good guy.

Two years ago I won a free year of Tekpub by answering a trivia question of Rob’s on twitter. It came at a GREAT time since I was recently out of work and trying to learn as much as I could. By the time my year had expired I had a new job and I didn’t think twice about handing over $200 during the two for one promotion in December.

Now it’s a year later and I blew $1000 on black Friday (mostly for a new TV . . our first flat screen!) and another $200 a few days later on a Lego train (which, so far, gave me way more joy than the TV . . it’s awesome!).

Needless to say I gotta watch the budget. Do I really want to spend the $200 for Tekpub this year? If I were to purchase every production from 2011 independently, here is how it would break down:

Mmmm, $171 . . . over the course of a year. Way less than I thought. This is an easy decision. For 2012 I’ll buy the ones I really want to see and save that $200 for another Lego set.

Oh, I missed the “of 2011” part. I’m always in a rush to publish once I finally have an idea even though I know I only have 2 readers (3 if I count you!). Anyway, I was careful to not be an ass because I do really like Tekpub. But the truth is there haven’t been many productions this year.

I’m a bit disappointed with Tekpub to be honest. They got off to a great start but it looks like they haven’t been able to get big names this past year and I feel like a lot of the videos – created by Rob – are there to make up the numbers. One of their better series – the one on threading – was removed without notification which (regardless of underlying complications with the presenter) doesn’t seem like a good way to do business. I agree with you – Rob seems like a nice guy and I would really love for Tekpub to succeed, but when my current subscription expires I’ll be thinking long and hard about renewing…

Sounds kind of like you have bad priorities for a software developer. At least, ya know, if you actually like software development. There is a ton of value in TekPub videos, some in a Lego Train (especially if you have kids), and practically ZERO (empirically proven) in having a damn TV.

Just sayin’, the evidence isn’t in your favor, you may want to get that TekPub Video Subscription and just forgo eating for a while or something.

@adronhall There is value in Tekpub . . . but I guess I’m saying there isn’t $200 worth. For me anyway. And, yeah, TV’s are bad news and time wasters. But I’ll use it to play StarCraft too, I promise. The Lego train is hours of entertainment. Best $200 I’ve spent. People who visit will be more intrigued by that than they will of the TV and Kinect (which is partly why I got a new TV). And I WILL buy TekPub publications in the future, just not a subscription. At least until they’re churning out way more publications I’m interested in.

I want to be a nice guy about this – I don’t mind if people don’t find value. I don’t mind if names like Ayende Rahien, Jon Skeet, Brad Wilson and Scott Hanselman aren’t big enough.

To each their own.

The thing that I think gets under my skin is you didn’t pay a dime for your yearly. And yet… this post. I’m not sure what it is you’re trying to accomplish Sheldon – you win a free annual and you decide that it would be fun to write a post on why it’s not worth it to buy another… what do you think I can do with this? Charge more? Stop what I’m doing?

It doesn’t matter I spose. Probably a better idea if you head over to Pluralsight.

@RobConery I really need to write more since obviously my communication skills are lacking here and I need more practice. Maybe after 10,000 hours of writing this won’t happen.

I DID pay a dime . . . 2000 of them in fact. You gave me a free year which was awesome and I’m grateful. And at renewal time I didn’t even hesitate and paid for the next year . . . no analysis was necessary (I had a new job and felt RICH anyway after being on my own for a year). This year I wanted to point out that if I paid for each new production individually it would have been less than $200. I thought that was interesting.

I’m still a customer. I’m still going to buy new productions as they come out. I still follow @Tekpub and you on twitter (well, until you block me for being annoying). Those names are big enough (except Ayende . . . I don’t give a shit about NHibernate :)). I’ll pay twice for the Scott Hansleman production. In fact, when it comes out I’ll put the receipts here on the blog.

That said, I stand by my assessment. Paying individually for the productions I want to see is probably the best way to go.

@Sheldon – I have to say that this post is very cheap on your part. I have been tekpub customer since its launch and I really enjoyed each and every screen cast they have produced…you are only considering the screencasts produced in 2011…but thats not the way you should see it…you must look at it as how much total content is available in the library…you are paying $200 not to access the 2011 library only…instead you can access all the previous content…2009 – present…again a very cheap assessment of yours…and you seem like the Sheldon guy in “The Big Bang Theory”…